Data Robotics DroboPro 8-Bay USB 2.0/FireWire 800/iSCSI Storage Array DRPR1A21
by Data Robotics
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Category: Personal Computer
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Digital Photo Product Details
Manufacturer: Data RoboticsBrand: Data Robotics
Edition: Personal Computers
Model: DRPR1A21
Publisher: Data Robotics
Studio: Data Robotics
Music Label: Data Robotics
Product features:
- Up to 8 disks of instant expansion
- Single or dual disk redundancy
- Triple Interface - iSCSI (Gigabit Ethernet), FireWire 800 (400 compatible) and Hi-Speed USB 2.0
- Up to 16 x 16TB Smart Volumes
- BeyondRAID technology
- AmazonBasics USB 2.0 A-Male to A-Female Extension Cable (3.3 Feet/1.0 Meter)
- AmazonBasics USB 2.0 A-Male to B-Male Cable (6 Feet / 1.8 Meters)
- AmazonBasics Ultra-High-Speed HDMI Cable Braided (9.8 Feet/3.0 Meters)
- AmazonBasics IEEE 1394 4-Pin/6-Pin FireWire Cable (6 Feet/1.8 Meters)
- AmazonBasics High-Speed HDMI Braided Cable (6.5 Feet/2.0 Meters)
Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Data Robotics DroboPro 8-Bay USB 2.0/FireWire 800/iSCSI Storage Array DRPR1A21
Customer Review: The most exciting storage product at this price point.
Summary: 5 Stars
Storage innovation has been ongoing over the years, but there hasn't been a whole lot of "new stuff" lately, and at price points like this, there hasn't been much change at all. Traditionally if you wanted to buy a cheap disk shelf, you'd be looking at something from Apple (discontinued), Promise, possibly Adaptec, NetGear, Iomega for a cheap 1u-style NAS head--at perhaps 4x-8x the price of this Drobo Pro.
But this isn't a NAS head, and it contains 8 drives (though it works fine with fewer). Instead, you're buying a block device that you can use over iSCSI, FW800, or USB.
The key benefit Drobo is selling is the zero management of RAID and volumes and the Drobo Pro delivers on this in a massive scale. Growing a volume is as simple as adding another disk (or swapping out the indicated disk with a larger one). The concepts of RAID-5 or RAID-6 need not be understood or considered by the user other than a checkbox of "do you want this thing to survive two concurrent drive failures?". Rebuilding is taken care of.
Drobo comes with a simple GUI to monitor capacity, show overhead for protection, configure email alerts. I did run into an issue where Drobo wouldn't work with my internal mail server due to a TLS problem, which I haven't debugged much--the mail server supports TLS, so I am not sure what the problem is. The iSCSI set-up was dead easy for me--I plugged in the Drobo with USB (just to get it configured), set the iSCSI IP address, moved the Drobo to the network closet and plugged in Ethernet, and the Mac automatically found and mounted the Drobo volume.
The construction of the unit is solid. It weighs a beefy 20 lbs (empty), and the fit and finish is superb. The drive trays are easy to work with--no screwing drive sleds onto drives or dealing with a flimsy aluminum chassis per drive. This puppy is solid. It comes with all the cables you will need (GigE, USB, FW800, power). I have some enterprise storage systems in the closet along with the Drobo, but none of them intrigue visitors the way the Drobo Pro does. Plus, the Drobo is practically silent with 8 drives in it--No 1u or 3u enterprise system is this quiet.
Performance is very good for the price point--I can do 100 MB/s in test I/O very easily. Xbench shows far better I/O scores than an Apple software RAID, and, mostly, better scores than a single SATA drive. There does appear to be some overhead for the data protection, but it's marginal and beats out cheaper RAID options.
I am mostly using the Drobo Pro for test storage for software I am writing but I am seriously considering buying another Drobo Pro for real live storage for my workstation and reducing the local SATA and FW800 storage.
For the price, there's nothing else out there like this. Sure you can buy some NAS systems from various vendors, or some big honking RAIDs from California Digital or other vendors--but no one bridges the management gap like Drobo does.
Some notes: I have only used the Mac software; I have no idea how Windows support is. I also have been looking into the Linux side of things, where it gets a little more complicated, and the documentation isn't there yet--but Drobo does note Linux is beta at the moment.
The Drobo Pro is well worth the cost for anyone who needs iSCSI or bigger capacities than the regular Drobo affords. Sure, there's just one Ethernet port, and only a single power supply, but this puppy is silly cheap for what it is. Higher end features will mean a higher price, but not everyone needs those features for small office products. For me, this is a winner. I hadn't owned a Drobo before this, but I expect I will be buying more Drobos in the future.
UPDATE 28-Sep-2009: Note that this is a block device. Some other device has to provide and manage the filesystem. If you plan to use this with multiple computers over Ethernet to the same volume, that's not going to fly so well--though the DroboPro should be able to serve up separate volumes (LUNs) to different hosts (haven't tried this myself). iSCSI is just a way to serve up blocks, not provide a shared filesystem. If you are looking for a shared filesystem, you either need some other device/computer to provide NAS (e.g., CIFS or NFS services) with the DroboPro or buy something else. The appeal of iSCSI over Ethernet is cheaper cabling and simpler infrastructure vs FibreChannel. Hope this helps.
Description of Data Robotics DroboPro 8-Bay USB 2.0/FireWire 800/iSCSI Storage Array DRPR1A21
DroboPro is a storage array that manages itself. DroboPro is a rackmountable/desktop eight-drive storage array that protects against two simultaneous drive failures. Capacity expands by adding/replacing drives. DroboPro¿s BeyondRAID technology allows mixing different sized drives without sacrificing capacity. Connect to server via iSCSI/FireWire800/USB. It supports up to 16, 16TB volumes (LUNs). Includes iSCSI initiator and backup software.Digital Cameras and Photo Categories
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